Moana

The 2016 animation by Ron Clements and John Musker was shaped by five years of consultation. The studio assembled an Oceanic Story Trust of experts from across the Pacific, and the story passed through nine versions. The group’s objections are legible in the finished film. Maui was first designed bald and was redrawn with long hair only after they pushed back, and a scene where Moana threw a tantrum with coconuts was cut outright. That is a large part of why the usual Disney spoiled-heroine beats are so thin here. The second thing to know sits in the music. Much of We Know the Way, the film’s statement of purpose, is not in English at all. Opetaia Foa’i wrote those lyrics in Samoan and Tokelauan, with Lin-Manuel Miranda supplying the English lines. For a family audience trained on lyric-driven Disney numbers, that sequence works through melody and image, not words. The film does not carry one title. A trademark conflict turned it into Vaiana across much of Europe, and in Italy it was released as Oceania. A brown-skinned Maui Halloween costume was also pulled from Disney’s store after complaints. Not for you if: you want a menacing Disney villain. Te Kā turns out to be an injured party, and the lesser threats close out early and never return.